Spanish architecture refers to architecture carried out in any area in
what is now modern-day Spain, and by Spanish architects worldwide. The
term includes buildings within the current geographical limits of Spain
before this name was given to those territories (whether they were
called Hispania, Al-Andalus, or were formed of several Christian
kingdoms). Due to its historical and geographical diversity, Spanish
architecture has drawn from a host of influences.

Since the first known inhabitants in the Iberian peninsula, the Iberians
around 4000 BC and later on the Celtiberians, Iberian architecture
started to take shape in parallel with other architectures around the
Mediterranean and others from Northern Europe.

A real development came with the arrival of the Romans, who left behind
some of their most outstanding monuments in Hispania. The arrival of the
Visigoths brought about a profound decline in building techniques which
was paralleled in the rest of the former Empire. The Moorish invasion in
711 A.D. lead to a radical change and for the following eight centuries
there were great advances in culture, including architecture. For
example, Cordoba was established as the cultural Capital of its time
under the Umayyad dynasty. Simultaneously, the Christian kingdoms
gradually emerged and developed their own styles, at first mostly
isolated from European architectural influences, and later integrated
into Romanesque and Gothic streams, they reached an extraordinary peak
with numerous samples along the whole territory. The Mudéjar style, from
the 12th to 17th centuries, was characterised by the blending of
cultural European and Arabic influences.

Towards the end of the 15th century, and before influencing Latin
America with its Colonial architecture, Spain itself experimented with
Renaissance architecture, developed mostly by local architects. Spanish
Baroque was distinguished by its exuberant Churrigueresque decoration,
developing separately from later international influences. The Colonial
style, which has lasted for centuries, still has a strong influence in
Latin America. Neoclassicism reached its peak in the work of Juan de
Villanueva and his disciples.

The 19th century had two faces: the engineering efforts to achieve a new
language and bring about structural improvements using iron and glass as
the main building materials, and the academic focus, firstly on revivals
and eclecticism, and later on regionalism. The arrival of Modernism in
the academic arena produced figures such as Gaudí and much of the
architecture of the twentieth century. The International style was
leaded by groups like GATEPAC. Spain is currently experiencing a
revolution in contemporary architecture and Spanish architects like
Rafael Moneo, Santiago Calatrava, Ricardo Bofill as well as many others
have gained worldwide renown.

Because of their artistic relevance, many architectural sites in Spain,
and even portions of cities, have been designated World Heritage sites
by UNESCO. Spain has the second highest number of World Heritage Sites
in the world; only Italy has more.

Prehistory

Megalithic architecture

Naveta des Tudons, in Menorca

In the Stone Age, the most expanded megalith in the Iberian Peninsula
was the dolmen. The plans of these funerary chambers used to be
pseudocircles or trapezoids, formed by huge stones stuck on the ground,
and others over them, forming the roof. As the typology evolved, an
entrance corridor appeared, and gradually took prominence and became
almost as wide as the chamber. Roofed corridors and false domes were
common in the most advanced stage. The complex of Antequera contains the
largest dolmens in Europe. The best preserved, the Cueva de Menga, is
twenty-five metres deep and four metres high, and was built with
thirty-two megaliths.

The best preserved examples of architecture from the Bronze Age are
located in the Balearic Islands, where three kinds of construction
appeared: the T-shaped taula, the talayot and the naveta. The talayots
were troncoconical or troncopiramidal defensive towers. They used to
have a central pillar. The navetas, were constructions made of great
stones and their shape was similar to a ship hull.

Iberian and Celtic architecture

Celtic settlements in Galicia: Castro de Baroña.

The most characteristic constructions of the Celts were the Castros,
walled villages usually on the top of hills or mountains. They were
developed at the areas occupied by the Celts in the Duero valley and in
Galicia. Examples include Las Cogotas, in Ávila and the Castro of Santa
Tecla, in Pontevedra.

The houses inside the Castros are about 3.5 to 5 meters long, mostly
circular with some rectangular, stone-made and with thatch roofs which
rested on a wood column in the center of the building. Their streets are
somewhat regular, suggesting some form of central organization.

The towns built by the Arévacos were related to Iberian culture, and
some of them reached notable urban development like Numantia. Others
were more primitive and usually excavated into the rock, like Termantia.

Roman period

Urban development

Roman theater in Mérida.

The Roman conquest of Hispania, started in 218 B.C. supposed the almost
complete romanization of the Iberian Peninsula. Roman culture was deeply
assumed by local population: Former military camps and Iberian,
Phoenician and Greek settlements were transformed in large cities where
urbanization highly developed in the provinces: Emerita Augusta in the
Lusitania, Corduba, Italica, Hispalis, Gades in the Baetica, Tarraco,
Caesar Augusta, Asturica Augusta, Legio Septima Gemina and Lucus Augusti
in the Tarraconensis were some of the most important cities, linked by a
complex net of roads. The construction development includes some
monuments of comparable quality to those of the capital, Rome.[2]

Constructions

Alcántara bridge, of Trajan epoque.

Civil engineering represented in imposing constructions like the
Aqueduct of Segovia or Mérida (acueducto de los Milagros), in bridges
like Alcántara Bridge and Mérida bridge, over Tagus River, or Cordoba
bridge, over Guadalquivir River. Civil works were widely developed in
Hispania under Emperor Trajan (98 a. D.-117 a. D.). Lighthouses like the
still in use Hercules Tower, in La Coruña, were also built.

Ludic architecture is represented by such buildings as the theaters of
Mérida, Sagunto or Tiermes, the amphi-theaters like the ones in Mérida,
Italica, Tarraco or Segobriga and circuses were built in Mérida,
Cordoba, Toledo, Sagunto and many others.

Religious architecture also spread thougout the Peninsula, and we can
quotate the temples of Cordoba, Vic, Mérida (Diana and Mars), and
Talavera la Vieja, among others. The main funerary monuments are the
Escipiones tower of Tarragona, the distyle of Zalamea de la Serena in
Badajoz, and the Mausoleums of the Atilii family, in Sádaba and of
Fabara, in Ampurias, both in Zaragoza. Arches of the Triumph can be
found in Caparra (four faced), Bará and Medinaceli.

Pre-Romanesque period

The term Pre-Romanesque refers to the Christian art after the Classical
Age and before Romanesque art and architecture. It cover very
heterogeneous artistic displays for they were developed in different
centuries and by different cultures. Spanish territory boasts a rich
variety of Pre-Romanesque architecture: some of its branches, like the
Asturian art reached high levels of refinement for their era and
cultural context.

Visigothic architecture

Asturian art

Santa María del Naranco

The kingdom of Asturias arose in 718, when the Astur tribes, rallied in
assembly, decided to appoint Pelayo as their leader. Pelayo joined the
local tribes and the refuged Visigoths under his command, with the
intention of progressively restoring Gothic Order.

Asturian Pre-Romanesque is a singular feature in all Spain, which, while
combining elements from other styles as Visigothic and local traditions,
created and developed its own personality and characteristics, reaching
a considerable level of refinement, not only as regards construction,
but also in terms of aesthetics.

As regards its evolution, from its appearance, Asturian Pre-Romanesque
followed a "stylistic sequence closely associated with the kingdom's
political evolution, its stages clearly outlined". It was mainly a court
architecture, and five stages are distinguished; a first period
(737-791) from the reign of the king Fáfila to Vermudo I. A second stage
comprises the reign of Alfonso II (791-842), entering a stage of
stylistic definition. These two first stages receive the name of
Pre-Ramirense. Its most important church is San Julián de los Prados, in
Oviedo, with an interesting volumetry and a complex iconographical
frescoes progam, related narrowly to the Roman mural paintings. The
characteristic lattices and the triple window at the chevet appeared
first at this stage. The Holy Chamber of the Oviedo Cathedral, San Pedro
de Nora and Santa María de Bendones also belong to it.

The third period comprises the reigns of Ramiro I (842-850) and Ordoño I
(850-866). It is called Ramirense and is considered the zenith of the
style, due to the work of an unknown architect who brought new
structural and ornamental achievements like the barrel vault, and the
consistent use of transverse arches and buttresses, which made the style
rather close to the structural achievements of the Romanesque two
centuries later. Some writers have pointed to a unexplained Syrian
influence of the rich ornamentation. In that period most of the
masterpieces of the style flourished: The palace pavilions of Naranco
Mountain and the church of Santa Cristina de Lena were built in that
period.

The fourth period belongs to the reign of Alfonso III (866-910), where a
strong Mozarab influence arrived to Asturian architecture, and the use
of the horse-shoe arch expanded. A fifth and last which coincides with
the transfer of the court to León, the disappearance of the kingdom of
Asturias, and simultaneously, of Asturian Pre-Romanesque.

Repopulation architecture

From the ending of the 9th to the beginning of the 11th century anumber
of churches were built in the Northen Christian kingdoms. They are
widely but incorrectly known as Mozarabic architecture. This
architecture is a summary of elements of diverse extraction irregularly
distributed, of a form that in occasions predominate those of
paleo-Christian, Visigothic or Asturian origin, while at other times
emphasizes the Muslim impression.

The churches have usually basilica or centralized plans, sometimes with
opposing apses. Principal chapels are of rectangular plan on the
exterior and ultra-semicircular in the interior. The horseshoe arch of
Muslim evocation is used, somewhat more closed and sloped than the
Visigothic as well as the alfiz. Geminated and tripled windows of
Asturian tradition and grouped columns forming composite pillars, with
Corinthian capital decorated with stylized elements.

Decoration has resemblance to the Visigothic based in volutes,
swastikas, and vegetable and animal themes forming projected borders and
sobriety of exterior decoration. Some innovations are introduced, as
great lobed corbels that support very pronounced eaves.

A great command of the technique in construction can be observed,
employing ashlar, walls re-enforced by exterior buttresses and covering
by means of segmented vaults, including by the traditional barrel
vaults.

The Moorish conquest of the former Hispania by the troops of Musa ibn
Nusair and Tariq ibn Ziyad, and the overthrowning of the Umayyad dynasty
in Damascus, leaded to the creation of an independent Emirate by Abd
ar-Rahman I, the only surviving prince who escaped from Abbasids, and
established his Capital city in Cordoba. It was to become the cultural
capital of Occident from 750 to 1009. The architecture built in
Al-Ándalus under the Umayyads evolved from the architecture of Damascus
with the addition of aesthetic achievements of local influence: the
horse-shoe arch, a distinctive of Spanish Arab architecture was taken
from Visigoths. Architects, artists and craftsmen came from the Orient
to construct cities like Medina Azahara whose splendour couldn't have
been imagined by the European kingdoms of the era.[3]

The most outstanding construction of the Umayyad Cordoba is the Great
Mosque, built in consecutive stages by Abd ar-Rahman I, Abd ar-Rahman
II, Al-Hakam II and Al-Mansur.

The Taifas

Aljafería, in Zaragoza.

The Caliphate disappeared and was split into several small kingdoms
called Taifas. Their political weakness was accompanied by a cultural
retreat, and together with a quick advance of the Christian kingdoms,
the taifas clung to the prestige of structures and forms of the style of
Córdoba. The recession was felt in the construction techniques and in
the materials, though not in the profusion of the ornamentation. The
lobes of multifoil arches were multiplied and thinned, transformed in
lambrequins, and all the Caliphal elements were exaggerated. Some
magnificent examples of the Taifa architecture have reached our times,
like the Palace of the Aljafería, in Zaragoza, or the small mosque of
Bab-Mardum, in Toledo, later transformed into one of the first examples
of Mudéjar architecture (Cristo de la Luz hermitage).

The Almoravids invaded Al-Andalus from north Africa in 1086, and unified
the taifas under their power. They developed their own architecture, but
very few of it remains because of the next invasion, that of the
Almohads, who imposed Islamic ultra-orthodoxy and destroyed almost every
significative Almoravid building, together with Medina Azahara and other
Caliphal constructions. Their art was extremely sober and bare, and they
used brick as their main material. Virtually their only superficial
decoration, the sebka, is based in a grid of rhombuses. The Almohads
also used palm decoration, but this was nothing more than a
simplification of the much more decorated Almoravid palm. As time
passed, the art became slightly more decorative. The best know piece of
Almohad architecture is the Giralda, the former minaret of the Mosque of
Seville. Classified as Mudéjar, but immersed in the Almohad aesthetic,
the synagogue of Santa María la Blanca, in Toledo, is a rare example of
architectural collaboration of the three cultures of Medieval Spain.

After the dissolution of the Almohad empire, the scattered Moorish
kingdoms of the south of the Peninsula were reorganized, and in 1237,
the Nasrid kings established their capital city in Granada. The
architecture they produced was to be one of the richest produced by
Islam in any period. This owed a great deal to the cultural heritage of
the former Moorish styles of Al-Ándalus, that the Nasrids eclecticly
combined, and to the close contact with the northern Christian Kingdoms.
The palaces of Alhambra and the Generalife are the most outstanding
constructions of the period. The structural and ornamental elements were
taken from Cordobese architecture (horse-shoe arches), from Almohads
(sebka and palm decoration), but also created by them, like the prism
and cylindrical capitals and mocárabe arches, in a gay combination of
interior and exterior spaces, of gardening and architecture, that aimed
to please all the senses. Unlike the Ummayad architecture, which made
use of expensive and imported materials, the Nasrids used only humble
materials: clay, plaster and wood. However, the aesthetic outcome is
full of complexity and is mystifying for the beholder: The multiplicity
of decoration, the skillful use of light and shadow and the
incorporation of water into the architecture are some of the keys
features of the style.[4] Epigraphy was also used on the walls of the
different rooms, with allusive poems to the beauty of the spaces.[5]

The architecture of the Moors and native Andalusians who remained in
Christian territory but were not converted to Christianity is called
Mudéjar Style. It developed mainly from 12th to 16th centuries and was
strongly influenced by Moorish taste and workmanship but constructed for
the use of Christian owners. Thus, it is not really a pure style:
Mudejar architects frequently combined their techniques and artistic
language with other styles, depending of the historical moment. Thus we
can refer to Mudéjar, but also to Mudejar-Romanesque, Mudejar-Gothic or
Mudejar-Renaissance.

The Mudéjar style, a symbiosis of techniques and ways of understanding
architecture resulting from Jewish, Muslim and Christian cultures living
side by side, emerged as an architectural style in the 12th century. It
is characterised by the use of brick as the main building material.
Mudéjar did not involve the creation of new structures (unlike Gothic or
Romanesque), but reinterpreting Western cultural styles through Islamic
influences. The dominant geometrical character, distinctly Islamic,
emerged conspicuously in the accessory crafts using cheap materials
elaborately worked—tilework, brickwork, wood carving, plaster carving,
and ornamental metals. Even after the Muslims were no longer employed,
many of their contributions remained an integral part of Spanish
architecture.

Mudejar church of Sahagún, León

It is accepted that the Mudéjar style was born in Sahagún.[6] Mudéjar
extended to the rest of the Kingdom of León, Toledo, Ávila, Segovia, and
later to Andalusia, especially Seville and Granada. The Mudéjar Rooms of
the Alcázar of Seville, although classified as Mudéjar, are more closely
related to the Nasrid Alhambra than to other buildings of the style as
they were created by Pedro of Castile, who brought architects from
Granada who experienced very little Christian influence. Centers of
Mudéjar art are found in other cities, like Toro, Cuéllar, Arévalo and
Madrigal de las Altas Torres. It became highly developed in Aragon,
especially in Teruel during the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, where a
group of imposing Mudéjar-style towers were built. Other fine examples
of Mudéjar can be found in Casa Pilatos (Seville), Santa Clara
Monastery, in Tordesillas, or the churches of Toledo, one of the oldest
and most outstanding Mudejar centers. In Toledo, the synagogues of Santa
María la Blanca and El Tránsito (both Mudejar though not Christian)
deserve special mention.

Romanesque period

Inner view of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

Romanesque first developed in Spain in the 10th and 11th centuries,
before Cluny`s influence, in Lérida, Barcelona, Tarragona and Huesca and
in the Pyrenees, simultaneously with the north of Italy, as what is
called "First Romanesque" or "Lombard Romanesque". It is a very
primitive style, whose characteristics are thick walls, lack of
sculpture and the presence of rhythmic ornamental arches, typified by
the churches in the Valle de Bohí.

The full Romanesque architecture arrived with the influence of Cluny
through the Way of Saint James, that ends in the Cathedral of Santiago
de Compostela. The model of the Spanish Romanesque in the 12th century
was the Cathedral of Jaca, with its characteristic plan and apse, and
its "chessboard" decoration in stripes, called taqueado jaqués. As the
Christian Kingdoms advanced southwards, this model spread throughout the
reconquered areas with some variations. Spanish Romanesque also shows
the influence of Spanish pre-Romanesque styles, mainly Asturian and
Mozarabic. But there is also a strong Moorish influence, especially the
vaults of Córdoba's Mosque, and the multifoil arches. In the 13th
century, some churches alternated in style between Romanesque and
Gothic. Aragón, Navarra and Castile-Leon are some of the best areas for
Spanish Romanesque architecture.

The Gothic period

León Cathedral

The gothic style arrived in Spain as a result of European influence in
12th century when late Romanesque alternated with a few expressions of
pure Gothic architecture like the Cathedral of Ávila. The High Gothic
arrived in all its strength through the Way of Saint James in the 13th
century, with some of the purest Gothic cathedrals, with German and
French influence: the cathedrals of Burgos, León and Toledo.

The most important post-13th century Gothic styles in Spain are the
Levantino and Isabelline Gothic. Levantino Gothic is characterised by
its structural achievements and their unification of space, with
masterpieces as La Seu (cathedral) in Palma de Mallorca, Valencia's silk
market, (Lonja de Valencia), and Santa Maria del Mar (Barcelona).

Isabelline Gothic, created during the times of the Catholic Kings, was
part of the transition to Renaissance architecture, but also a strong
resistance to italian renaissance style. Highlights of the style inclued
Saint John of The Kings in Toledo and the Royal Chapel of Granada.

In Spain, Renaissance began to be grafted to Gothic forms in the last
decades of the 15th century. The style started to spread made mainly by
local architects: that is the cause of the creation of a specifically
Spanish Renaissance, that brought the influence of South Italian
architecture, sometimes from illuminated books and paintings, mixed with
gothic tradition and local idiosyncrasy. The new style was called
Plateresque, because of the extremely decorated facades, that brought to
the mind the decorative motifs of the intricately detailed work of
silversmiths, the “Plateros”. Classical orders and candelabra motifs (a
candelieri) were combined freely into symmetrical wholes.

In that scenery, the
Palace of Charles V by Pedro Machuca, in
Granada, supposed an unexpected achievement in the most advanced
Renaissance of the moment. The palace can be defined as an anticipation
of the Mannerism, due to its command of the classical language and its
rupturist aesthetical achievements. It was constructed before the main
works of Michelangelo and Palladio . Its influence was very limited,
and, misunderstood, Plateresque forms imposed in the general panorama.

As decades passed, the gothic influence disappeared and the research of
an orthodox classicism reached high levels. Although Plateresco is a
commonly used term to define most of the architectural production of the
late XV and first half of XVI, some architects acquired a more sober
personal style, like Diego Siloe and Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón.

Examples include the facades of the University of Salamanca and of the
Convent of San Marcos in León.

The highlight of Spanish Renaissance is represented by the Royal
Monastery of El Escorial, made by Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de
Herrera where a much closer adherence to the art of ancient Rome was
overpassed by an extremely sober style. The influence from Flanders
roofs, the symbolism of the scarce decoration and the precise granite
cut were established as the basis of a new style that would influence
Spanish architecture for a century: Herrerian. A disciple of Herrera,
Juan Bautista Villalpando was influential for interpreting the recently
revived text of Vitruvius to suggest the origin of the classical orders
in Solomon's Temple.

Baroque period

As Italian Baroque influences penetrated across the Pyrenees, they
gradually superseded in popularity the restrained classicizing approach
of Juan de Herrera, which had been in vogue since the late sixteenth
century. As early as 1667, the facades of Granada Cathedral (by Alonso
Cano) and Jaen Cathedral (by Eufrasio López de Rojas) suggest the
artists' fluency in interpreting traditional motifs of Spanish cathedral
architecture in the Baroque aesthetic idiom.

Vernacular Baroque with its roots still in Herrera and in traditional
brick construction was developed in Madrid throughout the 17th century.
Examples include Plaza Mayor and the Major House.

Obradoiro façade of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

In contrast to the art of Northern Europe, the Spanish art of the period
appealed to the emotions rather than seeking to please the intellect.
The Churriguera family, which specialized in designing altars and
retables, revolted against the sobriety of the Herreresque classicism
and promoted an intricate, exaggerated, almost capricious style of
surface decoration known as the Churrigueresque. Within half a century,
they transformed Salamanca into an exemplary Churrigueresque city.

The evolution of the style passed through three phases. Between 1680 and
1720, the Churriguera popularized Guarini's blend of Solomonic columns
and composite order, known as the "supreme order". Between 1720 and
1760, the Churrigueresque column, or estipite, in the shape of an
inverted cone or obelisk, was established as a central element of
ornamental decoration. The years from 1760 to 1780 saw a gradual shift
of interest away from twisted movement and excessive ornamentation
toward a neoclassical balance and sobriety.

Two of the most eye-catching creations of Spanish Baroque are the
energetic facades of the University of Valladolid (Diego Tome, 1719) and
Hospicio de San Fernando in Madrid (Pedro de Ribera, 1722), whose
curvilinear extravagance seems to herald Antonio Gaudi and Art Nouveau.
In this case as in many others, the design involves a play of tectonic
and decorative elements with little relation to structure and function.
However, Churrigueresque baroque offered some of the most impressive
combinations of space and light with buildings like Granada
Charterhouse, considered to be the apotheosis of Churrigueresque styles
applied to interior spaces, or the Transparente of the Cathedral of
Toledo, by Narciso Tomé, where sculpture and architecture are integrated
to achieve notable light dramatic effects.

Royal Palace of Madrid

The Royal Palace of Madrid and the interventions of Paseo del Prado
(Salón del Prado and Alcalá Doorgate) in the same city, deserve special
mention. They were constructed in a sober Baroque international style,
often mistaken for neoclassical, by the Bourbon kings Philip V and
Charles III. The Royal Palaces of La Granja de San Ildefonso, in
Segovia, and Aranjuez, in Madrid, are good examples of baroque
integration of architecture and gardening, with noticeable French
influence (La Granja is known as the Spanish Versailles), but with local
spatial conceptions which in some ways display the heritage of the
Moorish occupation.

Rococo was first introduced to Spain in the (Cathedral of Murcia, west
facade, 1733). The greatest practitioner of the Spanish Rococo style was
a native master, Ventura Rodríguez, responsible for the dazzling
interior of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Saragossa (1750).

Spanish Colonial architecture

The church of Santa Prisca in Taxco: Mexican Churrigueresque.

The combination of the Native American and Moorish decorative influences
with an extremely expressive interpretation of the Churrigueresque idiom
may account for the full-bodied and varied character of the Baroque in
the American colonies of Spain. Even more than its Spanish counterpart,
American Baroque developed as a style of stucco decoration. Twin-towered
facades of many American cathedrals of the seventeenth century had
medieval roots and the full-fledged Baroque did not appear until 1664,
when the Jesuit shrine on Plaza des Armas in Cusco was built.

The Peruvian Baroque was particularly lush, as evidenced by the
monastery of San Francisco in Lima (1673), which has a dark intricate
facade sandwiched between the twin towers of local yellow stone. While
the rural Baroque of the Jesuite missions (estancias) in Córdoba,
Argentina, followed the model of Il Gesù, provincial "mestizo"
(crossbred) styles emerged in Arequipa, Potosí and La Paz. In the
eighteenth century, the architects of the region turned for inspiration
to the Mudejar art of medieval Spain. The late Baroque type of Peruvian
facade first appears in the Church of Our Lady of La Merced, Lima
(1697-1704). Similarly, the Church of La Compañia, Quito (1722-65)
suggests a carved altarpiece with its richly sculpted facade and a
surfeit of spiral salomónica.

To the north, the richest province of 18th-century New Spain — Mexico —
produced some fantastically extravagant and visually frenetic
architecture known as Mexican Churrigueresque. This ultra-Baroque
approach culminates in the works of Lorenzo Rodriguez, whose masterpiece
is the Sagrario Metropolitano in Mexico City (1749-69). Other fine
examples of the style may be found in the remote silver-mining towns.
For instance, the Sanctuary at Ocotlan (begun in 1745) is a top-notch
Baroque cathedral surfaced in bright red tiles, which contrast
delightfully with a plethora of compressed ornament lavishly applied to
the main entrance and the slender flanking towers.

The true capital of Mexican Baroque is Puebla, where a ready supply of
hand-painted glazed tiles (talavera) and vernacular gray stone led to
its evolving further into a personalised and highly localised art form
with a pronounced Indian flavour.

The extremely intellectual postulates of Neoclassicism succeeded in
Spain less than the much more expressive of Baroque. Spanish
Neoclassicism was spread by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San
Fernando, founded in 1752. The main figure was Juan de Villanueva, who
adapted Burke's achievements about the sublime and the beauty to the
requirements of Spanish clime and history. He built the Prado Museum,
that combined three programs- an academy, an auditorium and a museum- in
one building with three separated entrances. This was part of the
ambitious program of Charles III, who intended to make Madrid the
Capital of Art and Science. Very close to the museum, Villanueva built
the Astronomical Observatory. He also designed several summer houses for
the kings in El Escorial and Aranjuez and reconstructed the Major Square
of Madrid, among other important works. Villanuevas´ pupils Antonio
López Aguado and Isidro González Velázquez spread the Neoclassical style
through the center of the country..

19th century

Eclecticism and Regionalism

Communications Palace of Madrid.

A important eclecticism building is the Communications Palace of Madrid
(Palacio de Comunicaciones de Madrid), designed by Antonio Palacios and
Joaquín Otamendi. It was inaugurated in 1909.

Neo-Mudéjar Style

In the late 19th century a new architectural movement emerged in Madrid
as a revival of the Mudéjar architecture. The Neo-Mudéjar soon spread to
other regions of the country. Such architects as Emilio Rodríguez Ayuso
perceived the Mudéjar art as characteristical and exclusive Spanish
style. They started to construct buildings using some of the features of
the ancient style, as horse-shoe arches and the use of the abstract
shaped brick ornamentations for the façades. It became a popular style
for bull rings and for other public constructions, but also for housing,
due to its cheap materials, mainly brick for exteriors. The Neo-Mudéjar
was often combined with Neo-Gothic features.

Glass architecture

20th century

Catalan Modernisme

When the city of Barcelona was allowed to expand beyond its historic
limits in the late 19th century, the resulting Eixample ("extension":
larger than the old city; by Ildefons Cerdá), became the site of a burst
of architectural energy known as the Modernisme movement. Modernisme
broke with past styles and used organic forms for its inspiration in the
same way as the concurrent Art-Nouveau and Jugendstil movements in the
rest of Europe. Most famous among the architects represented there is
Antoni Gaudí, whose works in Barcelona and elsewhere in Catalonia,
mixing traditional architectural styles with the new, were a precursor
to modern architecture. Perhaps the most famous example of his work is
the still-unfinished La Sagrada Família, the largest building in the
Eixample.

Other notable Catalan architects of that period include Lluís Domènech i
Montaner and Josep Puig i Cadafalch.

Modernist architecture
The creation in 1928 of the GATCPAC group in Barcelona, followed by the
foundation of GATEPAC (1930) by architects, mainly from Zaragoza,
Madrid, San Sebastián and Bilbao, established two groups of young
architects practicing the Modern Movement in Spain. Josep Lluis Sert,
Fernando García Mercadal, Jose María de Aizpurúa and Joaquín Labayen
among others were organised in three regional groups.[9] Other
architects explored the Modern Style with their personal views: Casto
Fernández Shaw with his visionary work, most of it on paper, Josep
Antoni Coderch, with his integration of the Mediterranean housing and
the new style concepts or Luis Gutiérrez Soto, mostly influenced by the
Expresionist tendences.

In 1929 World's Fair was held in Barcelona and the German pavilion
designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became an instant icon;
amalgamating Rohe's minimalism and notions of truth to materials with a
De Stijl influenced treatment of planes in space. The large overhanging
roof famously 'hovers' apparently unsupported.

During and after the Spanish civil war and World War II, Spain found
herself both politically and economically isolated. The consequent
effect of which, in tandem with Franco's preference for "a deadening,
nationalistic sort of classical kitsch", was to largely suppress
progressive modern architecture in Spain.[10] Nevetheless, some
architects could make coexist in their works the official approval and
the advance in the construction, like Gutiérrez Soto, interested in
tipology and rational distribution of the spaces whose prolific work
alternated historical revivals and racionalist image with ease. Luis
Moya Blanco's achievements in the construction with brick vaults deserve
also a mention. His interest in the traditional brick construction lead
him to a deep investigation in the modern formal possibilities of that
material.

In the last decades of the Franco's life, a new generation of architects
rescued the legacy of the GATEPAC with strength: Alejandro de la Sota
was the pioneer in that new way, and young architects as Francisco
Javier Sáenz de Oíza, Fernando Higueras and Miguel Fisac, often with
modest budgets, investigated in prefabrication and collective housing
typos.

Contemporary architecture

Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, by Frank Gehry

The Auditorium of Tenerife, by Santiago Calatrava

The death of Franco and the return of democracy brought a new
architectural optimism to Spain in the late 1970s and 1980s. Critical
regionalism became the dominant school of thought for serious
architecture. The influx of money from EU funding, tourism and a
flowering economy strengthened and stabilised Spain's economic base,
providing fertile conditions for Spanish architecture. A new generation
of architects emerged, amongst whom were Enric Miralles, Carme Pinós,
and the architect/engineer Santiago Calatrava. The 1992 Barcelona
Olympics and the World's Fair in Seville, further bolstered Spain's
reputation on the international stage, to the extent that many
architects from countries suffering from recessions, moved to Spain to
assist in the boom. In recognition of Barcelona's patronage of
architecture, the Royal Institute of British Architects awarded the
Royal Gold Medal to Barcelona in 1999, the first time in its history the
award was made to a city.[12] Bilbao attracted the Solomon R. Guggenheim
Foundation to construct a new gallery which opened in 1997. Designed by
Frank Gehry in a deconstructivist manner, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
became world famous and single-handedly raised the profile of Bilbao on
the world stage. Such was the success of the museum that the
construction of iconic architecture in towns aspiring to raise their
international profile has become a recognised town planning strategy
known as the "Bilbao effect".[13]

In 2006, Terminal 4 of Barajas Airport by Richard Rogers and Antonio
Lamela won the British Stirling Prize. The Torre Agbar or Agbar Tower,
is a skyscraper in Barcelona by French architect Jean Nouvel. It
measures 144.4 meters (466 feet in height) and consists of a 38 stories,
including 4 underground levels. Its design combines a number of
different architectural concepts, resulting in a striking structure
built with reinforced concrete, covered with a facade of glass, and over
4,400 window openings cut out of the structural concrete.

Vernacular architecture
Due to the strong climatic and topographic differences throughout the
country, the vernacular architecture shows a plentiful variety.
Limestone, slate, granite, clay (cooked or not), wood, grass are used in
the different regions, and also structure and distribution differ
largely depending of the regional customs. Some of this constructions
are houses (like cortijo, carmen, barraca, caserío, pazo, alquería), as
well as the next pictured ones: